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THE CONVENTION OF THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES. which was absurd and ludicrous in itself, that "gentlemen of the highest possible public reputation, and the most unsullied integrity," had advised him to withdraw those troops as a measure due to the claims of peace and the continued prosperity to the country. They added that the authorities of South Carolina were fully justified in taking possession of that portion of Federal property which they had already seized; and that the President should have followed the counsel of Mr. Floyd in regard to the disputed matters, as that personage was his legitimate adviser in the premises. This assertion was erroneous, to use a gentle and courtly phrase; because Mr. Floyd had already become strongly and justly sus pected for those acts of treason against the Federal Government which were afterward clearly and unanswerably proved against him. The Commissioners also charged, that by approving of the removal of Major Anderson's command to Fort Sumter, the United States virtually commenced hostilities and declared war against the State of South Carolina. This declaration was equally false; because the three forts in the harbor of Charleston were exclusively Federal property, erected by Federal money, and therefore the Federal Government possessed an unquestionable right to transfer its own troops to and from its own fortresses precisely as it pleased, without involving a menace to any one. They concluded by declaring that the Administration, by refusing to comply with the demands of those whom the commissioners represented, assumed the entire responsibility of rendering civil war inevitable; that the State of South Carolina accepted the issue; and they appealed to Him, "who is the God of Justice as well as the God of Hosts," for the propriety of their conduct. They declared that South Carolina would perform the solemn and momentous duty which devolved upon her, " hopefully, bravely and thoroughly." They concluded by informing the President of the important and calamitous fact, that they purposed to return forthwith to Charleston. However much posterity may condemn the conduct and policy of Mr. Buchanan in reference to the Rebellion, he will deserve their com mendation for the manner in which he treated this extraordinary communication. As soon as he became aware of its character and contents, he instantly ordered it to be returned to those from whom it emanated, without the undeserved courtesy of an answer.

On the 26th of December Mr. Rhett introduced an ordinance into the Convention of South Carolina, recommending the assembling of another convention, consisting of representatives from all the slaveholding States. This ordinance consisted of six separate clauses. The first provided for the summoning of the convention aforesaid at Montgomery, Alabama, whose duty it should be to adopt a Constitution for the government of a Southern Confederacy. The second clause recommended to the slaveholding States the appointment by each State respectively of as many delegates therefrom as they had members in Congress; and suggested

that the proposed Constitution should be voted on by States. The third ordained that, as soon as that Constitution shoud have been adopted by the convention appointed for the purpose, it should be referred to the Legislatures of all the States concerned, for their ultimate discussion and approval. The fourth article affirmed that, in the opinion of the State of South Carolina, the Federal Constitution would form a suitable basis for the Confederacy of the Southern States. The fifth clause declared that the Convention of South Carolina should select eight delegates to represent that commonwealth in the Convention of the Southern States. The last article provided for the election of one commissioner from each slaveholding State, whose duty it should be to call the attention of the people of his State respectively to the duty of complying with the provisions of this ordinance, as adopted and recommended by the Convention of South Carolina.

This important document had been laid upon the table of the Charleston Convention, for the purpose of future and more deliberate discussion. On the same day another ordinance was adopted, whose purpose was to gain the co-operation and aid of the Federal office-holders in the Palmetto State to the cause of the Rebellion. It enacted, that all citizens of South Carolina, who, at the period of the passage of the ordinance of secession, held Federal offices within the limits of the State, were thereby appointed to have and hold the same offices under the new government, and to receive the emoluments of the same until it was otherwise ordered. It also enacted that "the revenue and navigation laws of the United States being abolished, as regards the Federal Government, they shall, as far as may be applicable, be adopted by the State of South Carolina, and executed thenceforth as such; and that all moneys which may thereafter accrue under those laws shall, when the salaries and expenses of the officials have been duly paid therefrom, be delivered to the Treasurer of South Carolina, and not, as heretofore, be paid to the Federal Government." This important act concluded by authorizing and commanding the officials of the State to "take possession of, and retain in their custody, all the property and funds of the United States which may come within their reach." This ordinance passed the convention with general unanimity. Immediately afterward the Palmetto flag was unfurled from the Charleston Post Office, from the Custom House, from Fort Moultrie, from Castle Pinckney, and from the Arsenal.

It must be admitted that the Charleston Convention proceeded in the work of political organization with a considerable degree of sagacity and ability. They passed ordinances amending the Constitution of the State in all those particulars which were rendered necessary by the new attitude which she had assumed as an independent sovereignty. They authorized the Governor of South Carolina to receive foreign ambassadors, to appoint representatives to foreign courts, to make treaties "by

SECESSION OF MISSISSIPPI.

71 and with the advice and consent of the Senate," to fill vacancies in the Senate during its recess, to convene that body under extraordinary circumstances; in a word, to enact a rôle similar to that of President of the United States, as far as the limited circumstances of the case would permit. The convention also adopted laws governing the future rights and defining the future qualifications of citizens of the State.

While these important events were transpiring in South Carolina, the political virus was being rapidly and effectually diffused throughout other portions of the Union. The commissioners who had been previously appointed by the convention of that State to proceed to each of the Slaveholding States, and lay before the conventions which might there assemble the ordinance of secession, and solicit their approval and co-operation, had been both diligent and successful in the execution of their trust. The new year 1861 was inaugurated at Savannah by the seizure of the Federal forts Pulaski and Jackson, by order of the authorities of the State of Georgia. This example was immediately followed by the Executive of Alabama, by whose orders the United States Arsenal at Mobile, and Fort Morgan, at the entrance to Mobile bay, were taken possession of by the State troops.

The first Southern State which followed in the wake of South Carolina in the act of secession was Mississippi. The convention assembled at Jackson, on the 7th of January, and it soon appeared that the prevalent feeling among the delegates was in favor of withdrawing from the Union. The president, when assuming the duties of his office, delivered an address, in which he advocated that policy in bold and unequivocal language. A committee of fifteen was immediately appointed to prepare and report an ordinance of secession, providing for the immediate withdrawal of the State from the Federal Union, with special reference to the establishment of a new Confederacy, to be composed of the seceding States. That committee reported on the 9th inst. Their report was wholly in accordance with the prevalent treasonable spirit. It was read, briefly discussed, and then adopted by a vote of eighty-four yeas to fifteen nays. By this precipitate act Mississippi became an outcast from the Union. The fifteen delegates who had opposed the ordinance made several efforts to postpone action in accordance with its provisions; but in vain. The torrent of opposition was overwhelming. On the next day those fifteen appended their signatures to the ordinance, thereby making the voice of the convention unanimous. Then the demonstrations of joy on the part of the populace were enthusiastic in the extreme. The city of Jackson was illuminated, and as the news spread from town to town, and from village to village, glad shouts of rejoicing resounded throughout the State.

That State was represented at this period in the Federal Senate by an individual who has since achieved an unenviable immortality. Jefferson

Davis had long been known as one of the most violent and extreme advocates of Southern and sectional interests; and though a man of acknowledged abilities, he had been too closely identified with the advocacy of disloyal sentiments to have gained the confidence or esteem of the nation. As soon as the news arrived at Washington that the State which he represented had withdrawn from the Union, it was announced that he would resign his seat in the Senate, and when so doing would deliver a brief address. The occasion would be one of unusual interest; and great curiosity was felt to ascertain how the Senator would acquit himself of the difficult and delicate task before him. Accordingly he arose at the first convenient opportunity, and proceeded, with a tone and manner not destitute of solemnity and pathos, to announce, that the State which he represented in that august body having withdrawn from the Union, it became his duty to resign his seat and his functions in it. He continued by reminding those who heard him that he had invariably advocated, during the long period of his public political career, the right of each State to withdraw from the Union whenever she may choose so to do. This right was an abstract and paramount one, even where a State might not in reality possess any real ground of complaint against the Federal Government. But the case became stronger, and the right of secession more undeniable, when such a ground of complaint does exist. Such was the fact in the present instance. He held that the slaveholding States, and Mississippi among the rest, had serious causes of offence against the Federal Government. He also asserted that a material difference existed between secession and nullification. The former was a total withdrawal from the Union; the latter was an attempt to resist the authority of the general. government, while the parties so resisting still formed a portion of that government. After dwelling upon these general topics he adverted to considerations more personal to himself; and in a tone of sympathy and cordiality which could scarcely have been expected from his hard and stern nature, gave utterance to those feelings of regret which naturally rose within him, at the severance of relations with which many pleasing and grateful recollections would forever be associated in his mind.

After the delivery of this address Mr. Davis withdrew from the Senate chamber amid the adieux of his political and personal friends. The example already given by the States of South Carolina and Mississippi was quickly followed by Alabama. A powerful and malignant genius controlled the destinies of that State, and led her on to perpetrate the most unfortunate event in her history. In the convention which met at Montgomery, William L. Yancey was the leading and commanding spirit; for on the 11th of January the secession ordinance was passed by that body. That ordinance was a singular and anomalous produc

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tion. It commenced by asserting that the "election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin to the two highest executive offices in the Union by a sectional party was an insult to the South too great to be borne." We cannot refrain from remarking here what a palpable absurdity appears upon the very face of this declaration; because it is self-evident to every calm and clear thinker, as we have already asserted, that that party which proved itself at the ballot-box to be the most numerous and powerful in the whole nation, whichever party that might be, could not be called a sectional one; and whatever other defects it night exhibit, it must, in the nature of the case, be more national and niversal than any other. The inhabitants of Alabama generally received the news of the secession of the State with immense exultation. In the towns, the villages, and the country, the wildest excitement prevailed. In Mobile particularly the enthusiasm was boundless. Throughout the length and breadth of the entire commonwealth secession poles were planted, secession flags were unfurled to the breeze, bands of music brayed forth secession melodies, secession cannon thundered, and secession eloquence resounded, in honor of the glorious and propitious event.

The next member of the Union which followed this ignominious example was Florida. Her apostacy was consummated on the 12th of January. The convention of that State met at Tallahassee, and after a short debate, the secession ordinance was passed. It was signed by each. member of the convention in one of the porticos of the capitol; and it is recorded that, as each delegate appended his name to the instrument, he was hailed with cheers, and a salute fired in his honor. Immediately afterward the Federal property at Pensacola was seized by the Rebels, with the exception of a single fortress. Fort Pickens was then held for the United States by Lieutenant Slemmer, who presented so firm and bold a resistance to the demands of the secessionists, that they desisted from any hostile demonstration for its acquisition.

On the 19th of January, 1861, the ordinance of secession was passed in Georgia. The vote stood two hundred and eight against eighty-nine. It is worthy of note, that prominent among those eighty-nine who opposed this inglorious act, not only by their speeches, but by their votes, was Alexander H. Stephens, afterward elected Vice-President of the rebellious confederacy. This was a rare and extreme instance of that inconsistency of conduct and principle which is so frequent and prevalent a vice among American politicians. This ordinance was remarkable for its brevity. The important act of secession was performed by means of an instrument no longer or more elaborate than the following: "We, the people of the State of Georgia, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinances adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in convention in 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States was assented to, ratified